The Grownup: A Story by the Author of Gone Girl Audio CD – Unabridged, 3 Nov. 2015

The first thing you should know is that this book is not your average length. The book is quite short and I would definitely say more of a short story or novella. I am not a particularly fast reader but this book did not even take me half a day to read.Regardless of this, I love Gillian Flynn as an author and have read her previous books, including Gone Girl.She still achieves the suspense and mystery/thriller that she portrays in all of her other books that I have read. She did not disappoint as there were still plot twists and the psychological thriller element that I expected.This book does really well to tell a full story in a limited amount of pages and could have definitely been a full novel if given the time.Ends on a cliffhanger but does leave you wanting more and I was not disappointed.

I knew that this was a short story when I bought it, but I didn't think it would be quite so short! I felt like I had only just got into it when it ended, and there wasn't enough time for the characters to be developed enough. The characters were all one dimensional, and while Miles was creepy at times, his personality wasn't built up enough so he didn't feel like a realistic, disturbing villain. The story moved on so quickly that you barely had time to digest one occurrence or twist before another one came. I liked the twist and it was clear how manipulative Miles could be, but the whole thing would have worked better if it had been longer, at least the length of a novella. I enjoy reading short stories, but this one felt more like a rushed summary of a novel.

This is no Gone Girl, nothing even remotely as good as Gone Girl, but, because it's so short, it was better at keeping my attention, so I wasn't so fussed about the kinda crappy ending.This was a funny novel. Flynn is really good at inputting humour into moments of a book that could be taken more seriously, and that's what I loved so much about this book, the humour. The story was good... well the beginning and middle were, and then the end lacked any oomf, but it was our funny narrator who made this book something worth reading.The plot for this was cliche as cliche can be, but I think that was intentional, because our narrator made fun of how cliche everything sounded. It was there to add some comedy value. The ending, as I said, was disappointing, only because it goes exactly as you would expect it to. I was hoping Flynn was going to pull another "oh-my-god" twist out after the initial twist, but alas.Worth a read if you can get it cheap, but don't expect anything too amazing... that sounds weird to say after rating it 4 stars, but I did actually like this and it did hold my attention... it's just... I don't know, I can't explain it.

****spoilers - don’t read if don’t wish to be spoilt! *****I’ve struggled with Flynn books - started sharp objects, got half way through and have not gone back to it for about a year or so now. Thought I’d try and ease back into Flynn’s style with The grownup as it’s so short. Whizzed through this in an hour. It’s ok, it’s not bad, it’s average. Flynn isn’t one of my favourite authors, but I’m tying to read lots of different styles. I did like the ending though, I thought the twist good - the build up of thinking it was a haunted house and it actually wasn’t - thought that part what cleverly led. Give it a go if you like ghosts/thriller style. And even if you don’t, it’s only an hour or so of your life!

The Grownup is really more of an extended short story than a book in its own right, as at 97 pages in the Kindle edition and slightly fewer in the paperback, it's barely long enough to qualify as a novella. Its narrator is a sex worker who branches out into giving psychic readings. She doesn't believe in psychic abilities or the supernatural, but her troubled childhood and criminal past amount to a lifetime of observing other people and using what she learns to manipulate and dupe them - essentially, she can work out what it is that people want to hear.One day, she gives a reading for Susan, the second wife of a well-off man and stepmother to his teenage son Miles, whose disturbing behaviour Susan is convinced is caused by dark forces present in the family's Victorian mansion. The narrator opportunistically offers to perform a spiritual cleansing of the property - for a reasonable sum of money, of course. But when she starts to spend time at the property, she begins to wonder if something sinister really is going on after all.Those who liked Gillian Flynn's smash hit thriller Gone Girl will enjoy seeing some of its hallmarks stamped on this story too - an unreliable and frequently unlikeable narrator, not a single character we can trust, and themes of bitterness and revenge. There's also a slightly heightened reality about this story that reminds me somewhat of the work of Chuck Palahniuk - don't turn to this story (or indeed to Gone Girl) if you're looking for grounded realism.Overall, I found it a fun read - it's dark, witty and smart. I didn't, however, feel the tension really built as it should have done when it came to the haunted house element of the plot. For the rest of the story to work, we need to feel a sense of fear and unease that just wasn't really evoked. Certainly worth the short time it takes to read it, though.